Fabricio Werdum is looking ahead to a major challenge this fall.
| Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Heavyweight contender Fabricio
Werdum extended his winning streak to four on Saturday with a
one-sided decision against Travis
Browne at
UFC on Fox 11. While few could have predicted that jiu-jitsu
ace Werdum would outwork the hard-hitting Hawaiian on the feet,
Werdum told Sherdog.com on Monday that everything went according to
his team’s plan.

“I knew conditioning was going to be a big part of it,” said
Werdum. “That’s why I put so much emphasis on it with ‘Cobrinha’
[Rubens Charles Maciel], my jiu-jitsu and conditioning coach.
Master Rafael [Cordeiro], as usual, led the MMA training and
strategy. I’ve been training with him for seven years.

“We saw that [Browne] always finishes his fights quickly and
struggles with stamina when it goes the distance,” Werdum
commented. “We noticed he was very heavy, about 247 pounds, and
that’s worse as the fight goes on because you have to carry more
weight.”

Werdum believes he could have knocked out Browne but favored a more
conservative strategy in order to avoid the counterstriking of
“Hapa.”

“I fought a smart fight, very strategic. A lot of people said I
could have knocked him out, but we know how dangerous Travis
Browne is. His hands are heavy, his kicks are heavy, so why
take so much risk? I was taking risks, but not many, because I
wanted to win. It was important. Imagine if I went with the flow at
the end, charged at him, and the guy lands a big one on me? That’s
heavyweight: one hit and it’s all over.”

With his win on Saturday, Werdum earned the right to challenge the
only other UFC heavyweight riding a four-fight win streak, champion
Cain
Velasquez. The title bout is tentatively expected to take place
in Mexico this November, but in Werdum’s mind, it’s already
begun.

“I’ve been thinking about that fight for a long time. Now, it’s
only a matter of beginning training. I’ll take a week off, then
I’ll train like crazy because I know it’s going to be a tough
fight,” Werdum said. “Travis was tough also, although it may not
have looked like it, but it was. This one is going to be even
tougher because it’s for the belt, and it’s going to be in Mexico
at about 3,000 meters’ altitude. There’s a lot to think about: the
altitude, the training, whether I need to go there early or train
at some mountain nearby. We’ll have to figure something out for
November. It’s not confirmed, but I think it’s going to be in
November.”

Before they face off inside the cage, Werdum and Velasquez will
likely coach opposing squads on a Latin American edition of “The
Ultimate Fighter.” However, this season of the long-running reality
show will come with a twist.

“It’s going to be a unique experience. I’ve been [on ‘TUF’] twice:
once as Wanderlei
Silva’s jiu-jitsu coach, and once as a head coach against
‘Minotauro’ [Antonio
Rodrigo Nogueira]. Now, it’s going to be a lot different, since
it’s not going to take place in a single country, but in almost
every country in Latin America,” Werdum explained. “A lot of people
will see, it will be nationally broadcast, so I can extend my work
as the UFC’s ambassador in Latin America, showing everything about
the fighters in the house: the effort, diet, suffering, fear,
anxiety, everything. We will be able to show how a fighter lives
and how he prepares for a big fight, so it’s huge to hit that
market.

“I’m used to ‘TUF.’ It takes a lot of work -- 40 days, sometimes
almost two months of shooting -- but I’m used to that as a
commentator and I think that I’ll nail it. All I want to be able to
do is my own training in the house. There will be some time between
shooting and the fight, but I don’t want to stop training. I’ll
have all my coaches with me -- Cobrinha, Rafael, my brother, Kenny
Johnson -- so I guess it will turn out fine.”